The contents are as follows.

(i) Letters and papers relating chiefly to taxation 1786-1820. The correspondents and subjects dealt with include duties on soap and candles, 1786-1787; surveyors of windows, etc., in North Britain, 1787; malt-tax in Scotland, 1788; Inspector General for Stamps for Scotland, 1790; accounts of the Receiver General for Scotland in respect of the land-tax, 1788-90; window, house, etc., taxes, 1878-1879; petition of the glasswork companies at Leith, Dumbarton, and Edinburgh, 1791; purchase of stamped paper in Scotland, 1791; Incorporation of Glovers of Edinburgh and the glove tax, 1792; duty on kelp, 1791; civil list funds in Scotland, 1793; the New Subsidy, 1793; proposed succession and legacy duties, 1794; duty on glass, 1795; income-tax, 1798-1799; stamp-duty, 1804; duties on articles used in bleaching, etc., 1810; printed report of the Highland Society of Scotland on the manufacture of kelp, 1817; repeal of the import duty on wool, 1820. (Folio 1.)

(ii) Salt-duty and fisheries, 1785-1817, undated. The correspondents and subjects include Dr John Roebuck on duties on coal and salt, 1785; scheme for establishing fishing stations on the western coasts of Scotland, suggested by a tour in 1787; the Earl of Selkirk on coal-duty, 1793; Sir William Forbes, forwarding memorial of fish-curers, particularly in the Shetland Islands, regarding additional salt-duty, 1798; petitions of the Greenock Adventurers in the White Herring Fishery against the Salt Bill, 1798; kelp, 1817; report of the Highland Society of Scotland on the state of the fisheries, undated. (Folio 166.)